[Inquiry] Cool, but don't i need to write functions or something?

[Greenwhy]

I've been reading a couple of beginner JASS tutorials lately, most are very informative but none are practical. Well done Magtheridon for introducing some practicality in a tutorial; this should help walk people through the learning process.

However, I've gone through lesson 1 of your tutorial and it has raised more questions than it has answered. I'm familiar with variables, arrays and operators in GUI and now you've shown me how to write the syntax in JASS but I don't find it useful because I still don't understand when and how I can use the syntax. Do I have to create a function in order to complete the assignment? Do I need to display the answer on the screen or something?

 

[Geries]

Basically you can declare variables in functions, and in globals tags. Mag started this whole stuff with a wrong subject. I guess he should have started in this order: functions & syntax, initialization, "Hello world", globals, locals, if statements & loops, takes & returns, calls and sets, the type code, then he could go for vJass syntax. So something like this list.

 

[Greenwhy]

I would love to see someone do a video tutorial which is basically just a documentary of how they made a map. They should design a fairly simple map which incorporates a lot of the basic thing we need to know about JASS. Then take a video from beginning to end so we can see exaclty how the whole process progresses. I think I would learn very quickly from that and then all these other tutorials might make a lot more sense to me.

 

[Tirlititi]

I find it smarter to begin with generic algorithm stuff and not syntax. Firstly because that's what's the most important thing in programming, and secondly because he'll have plenty of lessons to explain "how to use it" after.

 

[Greenwhy]

and secondly because he'll have plenty of lessons to explain "how to use it" after.

Yes but seeing how to apply a concept as you are learning it gives a much greater retention of knowledge. ie. If you learn something but don't understand how it works you are less likely to remember it. I feel this has been my biggest barrier for learning JASS. Most tutorials cover a range of concepts and when it comes time to implementing them I'm suddenly expected to recall a multitude of concepts, all if which I am yet to understand completely. Also, at this point, a lot of tutorials show an example which contains additional code which has not yet been covered and I find it difficult to focus on the concept because all I can think about is "what is that other bit for? surely I need to know that as well?"

Ive done a bit of training on how to teach effectively. I work in nuclear medicine and one of my roles is clinical tutor. Clinical environment is very different from coding so it might work differently. Please don't think I am trying to tell anyone what to do but I would just like to contribute my feedback

 

[Magtheridon96]

We're assuming that all students know nothing about JASS at all, so I'm introducing everything from square 0.

Lesson 2 will contain information on things we did not cover in Lesson 1, like variable initialization and the importance of giving variables an init value, then we'll move on to number systems (hexadecimal, octal, decimal, binary), and I will also introduce flow control (conditional branching and looping).

Lesson 3 will finally introducing calls and writing functions.
I will also be unmasking the textmacros in the code maps I've posted to introduce globals and locals.
There is a lot to do, and it's going to be incremental.


I've also decided that interactive maps are not beneficial or even worth making because they will be incredibly complex and inappropriate because they would remove you from the development environment of the world editor and put you in some other environment, only leaving you in the end to code in this totally different environment.

edit

Oh, also, functions are totally not required to complete the assignment of lesson 1.
I'm only teaching you how to do actions in a procedural and static manner so we can incrementally teach you guys JASS.

 

[Galatius]

My two cents: like Greenwhy, I have read a lot of so-called "introductory" and "beginner" JASS guides, and they have all left me scratching my head. Mag's first lesson is the very first piece on JASS that I fully understood from start to end.

I was also wondering why he didn't start with functions, but I trust him since he clearly knows his stuff and he is the first guy who has been able to explain this stuff in a way that I actually understand.

 

[Magtheridon96]

The reason I didn't start with functions is because functions requires information on variables
Variables only requires information on ... well, nothing. Just terminology

Teaching incrementally is totally the right way to go as Nestharus showed me a few weeks ago.

 

[Adiktuz]

JASS Class!!! This might be fun...

 

[Greenwhy]

I'm really enjoying this review. It is challenging but not too hard and it really makes you thing.

Do not use anything out of the scope of what's been taught.

I showed my code for project 1 to Nestharus and he told me I would have marks deducted (If i was enrolled) for using things which weren't introduced yet. You see I had figured out a loop for players which had multiple of the same unit. Also I initialised the player variables with their appropriate player. I understand why you don't want people using things outside of the scope (because they might miss the point of an idea if they do it a different way) BUT I strongly think that in lesson 12 when you cover "init" and "set" you should mention that you took care of that for us in project 1. Otherwise you risk giving people the wrong idea. Even better would be to have project 1 after lesson 12 for the sake of logical progression.

Keep up the good work These lessons are great so far!